RAMALLAH, January 9, 2012 (WAFA) – The three Palestinian Arabic dailies Monday highlighted the new crisis in Fatah-Hamas relations following Hamas ban on a high level Fatah delegation from entering the Gaza Strip.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Quds and al-Ayyam highlighted Fatah Central Committee’s statement which said it will re-evaluate the reconciliation agreement it had reached with Hamas. The committee also demanded from Hamas to apologize to Fatah and the Palestinian people for its “interior ministry behavior.”

Al-Quds reported on Hamas criticism of the Central Committee’s statement and its refusal to apologize to Fatah. The headline featured Hamas calling Fatah to abide by the reconciliation agreement and not to evade it.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported on its front page on the implementation of some terms of the reconciliation agreement, including the release of political prisoners and the distribution of some dailies both in the West Bank and Gaza.

Al-Ayyam reported on a new round of what Palestinian describe as exploratory meetings between Palestinians, Israelis and Quartet representatives on Monday in the Jordanian capital Amman, saying the meeting is supposed to focus on the issues of borders and security.

Al-Quds said that the higher Arab follow-up committee in Israel refused an Israeli draft bill that will legitimize the takeover of 80,000 dunums of Arab property in Naqab desert south of Israel and uproot tens of thousands of Bedouins.

An op-ed by Talal Okal in al-Ayyam criticized the Palestinian-Israeli meetings under the Quartet supervision, and said it weakens the credibility of the Palestinian official position against resuming direct negotiations with Israeli before halt of settlement activities and acceptance of 1967 borders.

Okal warned that the Quartet’s work has come close to an end, and that the Palestinian-Arab-Israeli conflict will escalate if Israel continues its land confiscation and settlements policy, racist practices against Arabs in Israeli, and Judaizing Jerusalem.

R.Q./M.S.